A survey of social gaze

Abstract

Based on a synthesis of eight major studies using six robots involving social gaze in robotics, this research proposes a novel behavioral definition as a mapping G = E(C) from the perception of a social context C to a set of head, eye, and body patterns called gaze acts G that expresses the engagement E. This definition places social gaze within the behavior-based programming framework for robots and agents, providing a guide for principled future implementations. The research also identifies five social contexts, or functions, of social gaze (Establishing agency, Communicating social attention, Regulating the interaction process, Manifesting interaction content and Projecting mental state) along with six discrete gaze acts for social gaze functions (Fixation, Short glance, Aversion, Concurrence, Confusion, and Scan) that have been employed by various robots or in simulation for these contexts. The research contributes to a computational understanding of social gaze that bridges psychological, cognitive, and robotics communities.